BAKER - Jetson Center for Youth celebrated their third annual "Celebration of Change" today. The event recognized progress in education and transformation of youth at Jetson.

Louisiana Juvenile Justice has implemented a therapeutic model for care of their youth. The new model is providing academic instruction to the facilities students, who are earning GEDs in larger numbers than prior years.

Despite the changes problems remain, the biggest being the size of the facility. Jetson is a 25-acre center that sits on almost 850 acres of land. Half of the current facility is no longer in use, but the staff has to pay utilities on all the buildings.

"This facility has been here for a long time," said Deputy Secretary Dr. Mary Livers. "It's not particularly therapeutic by its nature."

The state is currently studying a way to replace the facility and build a smaller center for youth.

"Operating this big facility and having this big sprawl of a campus may not be smart for the state to continue to operate this way," said Livers.

There is currently no timetable to replace Jetson just yet. A potential site for the new center is Old Scenic Highway and Broom in Baker.